The Georgia game was very much like the South Carolina game. We struggled against a tough defense but kept it close and had a chance in the end. The difference: Georgia has the top quarterback and the top running back in college football, and pretty soon the top wide receiver too.
We had no business staying in the game with these guys, but we did. I was in Athens on Saturday, and seeing the whole field at once gives you a sense of how fast the other team is. We think our linebackers are pretty fast, but fast is when your quarterback is trying to throw away a ball and their linebacker streaks across the field 30 yards in the secondary and intercepts it while he's diving out of bounds.
Yes, we're deeper and stronger and faster than we've ever been before. But we'll never be as deep and strong and fast as teams like Georgia. You know how everybody was talking about Mackenzi Adams' strong arm after the Auburn game? He didn't look so strong-armed after Matthew Stafford's first pass, a rocket to A.J. Green.
I'm not putting us down. I'm just saying we should put things into perspective. Several Commodore fans have been talking BCS for next season. Um, let's try to go to a bowl this season, and then let's try to go to a bowl next season.
What was good:
• We've got our quarterback. We're clearly better off with Adams in the game: It was only one play, but Nickson's third-down fumble pretty much ended that conversation.
• Jamie Graham is a playmaker: I sat down near Graham's Corner during the game and saw both of his sensational catches. Looked like he was jumping up for a loose ball or a rebound.
• Is there a better punter in the nation than Brett Upson? He single-handedly kept the Commodores in the game by pinning the Bulldogs deep in their own territory.
• We actually established the running game, gaining 114 yards against a team that holds opponents to 52 a game, and held Tennessee to a single yard. It must have been a combination of changes made on the offensive line (Kyle Fischer and Eric Hensley started over Reilly Lauer and Joey Bailey/Nick Forte) and the hard running of Jared Hawkins, who was hobbled with an ankle in the Miss State game.
• We had very few three-and-outs.
• We held Georgia to 1 for 8 on third-down conversions.
What needs work:
• Brandon Barden is a talented tight end and a great addition to our team, but he bobbled and dropped a couple of big passes in traffic.
• Can we score more than 14 points in a game?
• Bobby Johnson says the Commodores need to tackle better, so I'll list it here. But can anybody tackle Knowshon Moreno?
• We put some minimal pressure on Stafford but never came close to sacking him, and he had three freshmen and a sophomore protecting him.
All in all, I was pleased with the performance from the Commodores. The goal for Vanderbilt, I think, was for the Commodores to play to win but not be psychologically devastated if they didn't.
This was as close to a moral victory as you can get. But the question isn't whether we can scare the daylights out of teams we're not supposed to beat. For the rest of the season, the question is can we beat the teams we have a chance to beat. We didn't do that against Miss State, but we've got a great chance next week against Duke, and then after the Florida game we've got tough but winnable dates with Kentucky, Tennessee and Wake Forest.
No comments:
Post a Comment